Critics of Cuomo upstate nuclear bailout buy billboard space

A billboard in Albany aims to generate support for the Stop the Cuomo Tax campaign. (Ken Lovett / New York Daily News)

Here is a fourth item from my "Albany Insider" column that was cut for space:

Critics of Gov. Cuomo's proposed bailout of three upstate nuclear power plants have purchased billboard space on a highway close to the state Capitol in Albany.

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Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group part of the The Stop the Cuomo Tax campaign, is paying for the large billboard against the governor "to shame him into dropping his proposed nuclear bailout plan," a spokesman for the group said.

Cuomo says saving the three plants is key to his clean energy plan designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But a recent report by a coalition of groups opposing the plan say the subsidy to Exelon could total more than $7 billion. The payment, known as a zero emission credit, would come from utilities across the state that are required to buy power from the nuclear plants at inflated prices.

The coalition says it will add $2.3 billion in costs that will be shared by residential customers across the state. For Con Edison consumers, that would mean an extra $705 million over the next 12 years, the report said.

Cuomo has argued the zero-emission nuclear plants are needed as a temporary measure until the state achieves his goal of generating 50% of New York's electricity from renewable energy sources like wind and solar by 2030.

"The clean energy standard applies to the technology, not the companies," Azzopardi recently told the News. "The closure of these zero emission plants would put hundreds of New Yorkers out of work, send utility bills skyrocketing, and create an energy shortfall that would have to be filled with more expensive dirty fuel, making it impossible for New York to meet its nation-leading emissions and renewable standards."